Merchant of Venice Act 2, Scene 5 Modern English Translation Meaning Annotations – ICSE Class 10 & 9 English
EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology
ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions
Original Text
Act II Scene V
Modern English Reading
Act II Scene V
SHYLOCK : Well, you shall see; your eyes shall be your judge, the difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:—What, Jessica!—You won’t eat like a glutton, As you have done with me;— What, Jessica!—And sleep and snore, and tear clothes apart—Why, Jessica, I say!
LAUNCELOT : Why, Jessica!
SHYLOCK : Who called for you? I didn’t call for you.
LAUNCELOT : You, sir, always told me I couldn’t do anything without bidding.
Enter Jessica.
JESSICA : Did you call? What is it?
Word Meaning With Annotation
The difference of : the difference between your late master and your new one. gormandize : “devour large amounts of food.” It will be remembered that is Scene II, Launcelot said that he had had so little to eat in the Jew’s service that all his ribs might be easily counted. But Shylock takes a different view of the matter.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
SHYLOCK : I am asked to go out to supper, Jessica: There are my keys. But why should I go? I am not asked for friendship; they flatter me; But yet I’ll go in hate, to feed on the prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl, take care of my house. I am very reluctant to go; there is some ill disturbing my rest, because I dreamt of money bags tonight.
LAUNCELOT : Please, sir, go: my young master expects yourinsult.
SHYLOCK : So I expect his.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Bid forth : invited out. to feed upon, the prodigal Christian : this shows the meanness of Shylock, who goes out for no other reason than to enjoy a free meal at the expense of the open-handed Bassanio. loath : reluctant, ill a-brewing : there is some mischief impending or being prepared, tonight : when we use this phrase, we usualy do so in a future sense, i.e. the night which is to come. But Shakespeare here, uses it.in the sense of “last night.” reproach : blunder for “approach”.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
LAUNCELOT : And they have conspired together; I’ll not say you shall see a party, but if you do, then it was not for nothing that my nose started bleeding on last Black Monday at six o’clockin the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four years in the afternoon.
SHYLOCK : What! are there parties? Listen to me, Jessica: Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum, And the vile squealing of the long-necked pipe, Don’t run up to the windows then, rr thrust your head into the public street to gaze on Christian fools with varnished masks; But stop my house’s ears- i mean my windows; Don’t let the sound of shallow foolishness enter my sober house. By Jacob’s staff, I swear I don’t want to go feasting outside tonight; But I’ll go. You go ahead of me, servant; Say I’ll come.
LAUNCELOT : I’ll go ahead of you, sir. Mistress, look out at window for all this; There will come a Christian byThat will be worth a Jewess’ eye.
Exit
SHYLOCK : What says that fool of Hagar’s off spring, huh?
Word Meaning With Annotation
And they have conspired : this is another case where Launcelot uses a word which is hardly suitable for his meaning, but it expresses unconscious truth, for the audience knows that there had indeed been a conspiracy by the lovers. So that is an other skilful use of dramatic irony, my nose fell a-bleeding : there was a superstition that if person’s nose commenced to bleed, it was a sign of bad luck. Black Monday : Easter Monday, so called because, according to Stow’s Chronicle, …. “Easter Monday was full dark of mist and hill, and so bitter cold that many men died on their horses’ back of the cold.” Ash- Wednesday : this festival always falls on the first Wednesday in Lent, six weeks before Easter. So it is absurd of Launcelot to talk of Easter Monday and Ash Wednesday falling at the same time, was four year in the afternoon : in the same speech, Launcelot says that this event happened last year; then that it happened four years ago. First he says it was in the morning, and ther. that it happened in the afternoon, drum and the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife : probably refer to the players, rather than the instruments, i.e. drum is the same as our “drummer”. In a work called English Garner Tudor Tracts, we hear that a “drum…. was shot in both legs.” Similarly “fife means a fife-player”, “wry-necked” (i.e. corrked-necked) refers to the fact that it was necessary for the fife player to twist his head to one side when playing his instruments, vanish’d faces : Faces painted or made up with colour, foppery : foolery, by Jacob’s staff : Shylock swears by the staff which his ancestor, Jacob, is said to have carried according to Biblical stories, there will come a Christian by, will be worth a Jewess’ eye : this refers to Lorenzo. He will pass by, and will be worth looking upon, what says that fool of Hagar’s off spring; ha : the Gentiles, the people despised by the Jews, were supposed to be descended from Hagar, while the Jews traced their line back to Sarah. So, Launcelot, the servant, is a son of Hagar, the slave woman.
Original Text
Modern English Reading
JESSICA : His words were, “Goodbye, mistress,” nothing else.
SHYLOCK : The man is kind enough, but a huge eater; Snail-slow in worth, and he sleeps by day more than the wild-cat does; drones don’t live with me, so I’m parting with him; and send with him to one that I want him help to waste his borrowed purse. Well, Jessica, go in; Perhaps I’ll return immediately: Do as I tell you, shut doors after you: “Fast bind, fast find,”A proverb that’s never forgotten in a successful mind.
Exit.
JESSICA : Goodbye; and, if my fortune is not crossed, I have lost a father, and you a daughter.
Exit.
Word Meaning With Annotation
Patch : fellow; fool. The word is probably derived from the motley coat of the professional jester, which was “patched” i.e. of different colour, drones hive not with me : the male bee is called the drone. He never searches for honey, but allows the female bee to do all the work. Here the sense is “Idlers may not live with me.” help to waste his borrow’d purse : Shylock wishes the wasteful Launcelot to aid Bassanio in squandering the borrowed money, fast bind, fast find : “what you lock up securely will be found safe when you return.”
For More Resources